Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.

August 1956. "Attendees at the Republican National Convention, San Francisco, California." They liked Ike, and Richard Nixon too. Photograph by Thomas J. O'Halloran, U.S. News & World Report. View full size.

"Mentally Retarded children in E.S.F.S. for Crippled Children." New York circa 1908. "Feeble-minded in cripple school" is the non-PC caption written on this classroom scene showing the East Side Free School for Crippled Children, 155-157 Henry Street. George Grantham Bain Collection glass negative. View full size.

May 1909. Somersworth, New Hampshire. "Lefthand boy Zeke Gosselin, 95 Main Street. Been in mill one year. Other boy Philip Lesard, 68 Elm Street. Been in mill three years. Working in Great Falls Manufacturing Co." View full size.

District of Columbia, 1914. "Alley clearance. Slum views." A scene that I don't imagine would have changed much since the 19th century except for the utility pole. Harris & Ewing Collection glass negative. View full size.

Shorpy.com | History in HD is a vintage photo blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago.